Settlement Ends Workers' Suit

Guatemalans Say Imperial Nurseries Treated Them Like Prisoners

June 26, 2007|By MARK SPENCER; Courant Staff Writer

Walter Hernandez says he ``felt like a prisoner'' when he worked at Imperial Nurseries in Granby last year.

But on Monday, Hernandez, a 24-year-old Guatemalan, was celebrating a settlement for back wages that ends a federal lawsuit he and 11 other workers filed in February against the nursery and its corporate parent, Griffin Land & Nurseries Inc.

The Guatemalans said they were forced to work up to 80 hours a week, lived in deplorable conditions, were denied medical treatment and earned as little as a couple of dollars an hour instead of the $7.50 an hour they were promised.

The workers, who got temporary work visas before leaving Guatemala and paid their own air fares to the U.S., were told they would be planting trees for a company in North Carolina. Instead, they were brought against their will to Connecticut, they say, where they worked long days packing trees into pots.

The lawsuit says rent for a filthy apartment in Hartford was deducted from their wages, along with ``security deposits'' and fees for tools used at work.

The lawsuit, including additional allegations of forced labor and human trafficking, will continue against a third company, Pro Tree Forestry Services of North Carolina, the contractor who allegedly hired the workers.

``I hope this sends a message to companies that they should make sure their contractors are treating their workers well,'' Hernandez said Monday through a translator.

Imperial, which the lawsuit claims is among the 20 largest landscape nursery growers in the country based on sales volume, fired Pro Tree last year after learning of problems with the contractor, the company said when the lawsuit was filed in February.

Although details of the settlement were not released, Griffin agreed to provide the workers with financial compensation out of concern for the hardship they say they experienced, according to a statement from Griffin.

``Griffin and Imperial are pleased that the case against us has now settled,'' said Mike Danziger, president and chief executive officer of Griffin.

The Guatemalans, who spoke little or no English, initially feared complaining about their treatment because they say they were threatened by supervisors with arrest and deportation.

One worker eventually contacted the Rev. Nelson Negron at the Church of God Pentecost in Hartford, who helped them contact Junta for Progressive Action, an immigrant advocacy group in New Haven.

The Jerome N. Frank Legal Services Organization at Yale Law School filed the federal lawsuit on behalf of the workers. In April, the U.S. Department of Labor filed a similar lawsuit against Imperial and Pro Tree on behalf of 27 additional workers. The status of that case could not be determined Monday.

Mike Wishnie, a Yale Law School professor involved in the lawsuit, said the settlement is a warning to employers, whether landscaping companies or Wal-Mart, that they must pay lawful wages and provide a safe working environment.

The case illustrates why the guest worker program should be changed to avoid abuses by employers, Wishnie said. An immigration reform bill that the U.S. Senate may vote on this week massively expands the guest worker program.

The Guatemalans had H-2B visas, which allowed them to work in the U.S. for six months. But when such visas tie a worker to a specific company and don't provide a path to permanent legality, workers have little recourse if they are mistreated, Wishnie said.

``The details really matter,'' he said. ``If you get it wrong, you end up with a rent-a-slave program.''

Several of the Guatemalans on Monday thanked those who had helped them, including their lawyers, Junta for Progressive Action and Unidad Latina en Accion. Community groups raised thousands of dollars to provide housing and other services for the workers.

Junta Executive Director Sarahi Almonte said, ``It's a good thing to see a community come together, to see people stand up for their rights.''

HIGHLIGHTS

Resolves financial claims of a dozen Guatelmalan workers who said Imperial Nurseries in Granby paid them as little as a couple dollars an hour

Still unresolved are claims that the company that allegedly recruited the workers, Pro Tree Forestry Services:

Denied workers emergency medical care

Threatened workers with arrest, imprisonment and deportation if they complained